Phenol is an extremely caustic chemical that burns the skin. Absorption of phenol through the lungs or skin can cause: central nervous system damage, pneumonia, respiratory tract infection, heart-rate irregularities, skin irritation, kidney and liver damage, numbness, vomiting, and can be fatal

You might find this fact interesting. Due to the increase in toxic buildup in our bodies, including the toxic buildup of formaldehyde, dead bodies are not decomposing as fast as they used to. Bodies now start to decompose within 7 to 10 days after death. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese bodies started to decompose within 24 to 48 hours. However, Americans didn’t start to decompose for 4 to 5 days. Twice as much formaldehyde was needed to embalm a person 20 years ago compared to today.

Warning labels on containers refer only to toxic hazards from ingestion; however, only 10% of health problems from chemicals are caused by ingestion. 90% are caused by the inhalation of vapors and absorption of particles.

Do you still want to use products in your home that contain formaldehyde?

Thank you to Cynthia Latham VP of research and development, for this very compelling and wonderfully sourced data.

Since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are, by default, conducting a massive clinical toxicology trial, and our children and their children are the experimental animals.

150 chemicals found in the home are connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological disorders.

[Source: Consumer Protection Agency (CPA)]

3 groups of people are primarily affected by indoor chemical concentrations because they spend more time indoors and their immune systems are weaker. The 3 groups are: Infants and toddlers, Chronically ill, Elderly

[Source: 1988 EPA, 5-year study]

Liquid dish soap is the leading cause of poisonings in the home for children under the age of six (over 2.1 million accidental poisonings per year). Most brands of liquid dish soap contain Formaldehyde and ammonia.

Out of 2,435 pesticide poisonings in a one-year period, over 40% were due to exposure to disinfectants and similar cleaning products in the home.

[Source: State of California Study]

Most laundry detergent contains a form of NTA. NTA is a substance we may reasonably anticipate to be a carcinogen.

[Source: The Merck Index]

Household Chlorine bleaches which claim to disinfect are classified as pesticides under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Inadvertently mixing bleach with other cleaners that contain ammonia produces a toxic chloramines gas. These toxic gases can cause coughing, loss of voice, a feeling of burning or suffocation, and even death.

Women who work in the home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside of the home.

[Source: 17- year EPA study]

As more toxic chemicals have been introduced to our everyday environment in greater amounts over the last 20 to 30 years, the level of toxins stored in dipose tissues (fat cells) of our bodies have risen. Bioaccumulation studies have shown that some toxins store in our bodies for life. Greater and greater amounts are being stored at younger ages. One study showed that in the fat of 100% of the people tested was 1,4-Dichlorobenzene, a chemical found in most household deodorizers and room fresheners. Some products release contaminants into the air right away, others do so gradually over a period of time. Some stay in the air up to a year. These contaminants, found in many household and personal care products can cause dizziness, nausea, allergic reactions, eye/skin/respiratory tract irritations and some cause cancer.

[American Lung Association]

Asthma was once a very rare disease. Now the condition is extremely common, the asthma rate has tripled in the last 20 years with nearly 30 million Americans currently afflicted.

[Source: Consumer Federation of America, 1997]

In one decade, there has been a 42% increase in asthma (29% for men, 82% for women). The higher rate for women is believed to be due to women’s longer exposure times to household chemicals.

[Source: Center for Disease Control]

Childhood asthma has increased by more than 40% since 1980.

[Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, June 1997; 105 (6)]

Asthma death in children and young people increased by a dramatic 118% between 1980 and 1993.

The average child visits the doctor 23 times in the 1st 4 years of life, with the most common complaint being respiratory ailment.

[Source: National Center for Health Statistics, 1997]

Developing cells in children’s bodies are more susceptible to damage than adult cells that have completed development, especially for the central nervous system. During the development of a child, from conception through adolescence, there are particular windows of vulnerability to environmental hazards. Most disturbing until a child is approximately 13 months of age, they are virtually no ability to fight the biological and neurological effects of toxic chemicals.

Today, children have chemical exposures from birth that their parents didn’t have until they were adults. Because children are exposed to toxins at an earlier age than adults, they have more time to develop environmentally triggered diseases, with long latency periods, such as cancer.